Leadership and Delegation at Nando's Restaurant Chain - Report Example

A report on – “A rapid growth program meant the Nandos chicken restaurant chain needed to build leadership and delegation skills fast” Contents Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Main Body 4 Need to build leadership skills in an organization 4 Leadership and organizational culture at Nando’s 5 Application of theoretical frameworks of team performance and leadership 5 Conclusion/Recommendations 8 References 9 Appendix 10 Executive Summary Nando’s a South African restaurant chain with a specialty in chicken items and its Portuguese infrastructure has gained decent market share over the years. The company now sets plans for further growth and development by opening new outlets and acquiring more profit margins. The rapid growth of the company requires some changes in the leadership skills as the responsibility upon the leaders will increase and this would even have an impact on the overall team performance of the company. The report comprises of theoretical frameworks based on which an analysis is done so as to recommend the best of leadership styles that can be incorporated in the system so as to maintain the employee satisfaction level and the family culture at Nando’s . Introduction Nando’s is a chain of chicken restaurants originally from South Africa but has expanded its operations to country such as UK. The company initially had a few number of outlets or restaurants which enabled the company to maintain a family culture in the system where the employees were always motivated to perform well. Nando’s had the common principle that if the employees remain happy then this would have a positive impact on the operations of Nando’s and even enable the company to provide better customer service. The market expansion strategy has posed serious challenges to the company in which the managers and the area managers known as MD needs to manage more operations in increased number of outlets and this would require enhanced leadership skills for managing day to day business issues. The company intends to promote managers internally so that it can save money and even protect the family culture within the organization. Main Body Need to build leadership skills in an organization In the present scenario of highly competitive business environment it is essential that the organizations maintain not only task oriented work culture but also relationship oriented work culture. There are many organizations such as Nando’s which focus on market expansion so as to capture more of market share and even increase on their revenue generation. This expansion strategy followed by the companies need support from the leaders so that they possess the best skills that would be require to handle the various managerial issues that is associated with such a strategy (Lussier and Achua, 2009, pp. 101-102). The leaders are the ones who initiate actions, set plans for achieving future goals and objectives, and even communicate the same with the team members. The leaders play a vital role in motivating people, giving guidance, and building moral and confidence level within the team members (Mehrotra, 2005, pp. 43-44). The leaders play the major role in developing a stable work environment by communicating with the team members and even resolving the issues put forward by them. There are generally three kinds of leadership styles that are adapted by an organization; they are, authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire (Lussier, 2012, pp. 75-76). These three styles indicates different leadership skills, like for instance in authoritarian style the leaders sets plans for the team members, provides direction and guides the members. The democratic style focuses more on leaders being friendly with the team members, encouraging the members to come forward with ideas and opinions, and working all together as a team. The laissez-faire style is such in which the team members are given the full liberty to work according to their preference without any interference from the leader (Muna, 2011, pp. 94-95). Leadership and organizational culture at Nando’s The leadership styles depend on the characteristics of the tasks to be performed and even on the characteristics of the employees. Nando’s was not only famous for its delicious dishes but also for the friendly atmosphere that it guests experienced when they visited the outlets of Nando’s The leadership style that is followed in the company is democratic leadership style in which the leaders or rather the managers coordinates with its team members and they work together as a family (Northouse, 2012, pp. 134-135). The main aim of the management of Nando’s is to provide their employees with all the benefits to initiate motivation and even takes effective measures to resolve any issues of the employees in relation to the business operations. The Service Profit Chain model is well incorporated in Nando’s which states that if the employees are high motivation and satisfaction towards an organization they tend to be more productive and then deliver the best of customer service. Nando’s has always maintained a family culture in which the managers take good care of their employees and even maintains some fun budget which is utilized in parties or holidays for the employees (Bryman, 2013, pp. 123-124). With the increase of the restaurant chain there is a great need to make the leaders acquire the desired skills for managing the extended operations. The team can only perform well when the leaders take effective decisions. The appropriate leadership style is essential for increasing upon the overall performance of the organization and even to manage operations in the highly competitive business environment. Application of theoretical frameworks of team performance and leadership The overall performance of the organization can be increased through constant support of the team members and the leaders. This can be well described with the help of Path Goal Theory. This theory states that the leaders play the major role in inspiring team members and even setting plans towards the organizational performance. The theory comprises of three different aspects undertaken by the leaders first is setting goal, then creating path for achieving the goal, removing any kind of obstacles on the path, and even increasing the job satisfaction level of the employees (Gottlieb, 2003, pp. 114-115). The theory states that there are various kinds of leaders, and Nando’s has always incorporated supportive leadership. This kind of leadership increases the total team effort of the organization as described in Appendix 1. Nando’s expanded business operations require the leaders to adopt various styles of leadership depending on the situation prevailing in the company. In order to manage the teams at Nando’s the leaders need to consider three different forces such as forces in the leader, situational forces, and forces in the follower. This can be well described by Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum (Iqbal, 2011, pp. 121-122). The continuum states that leadership style varies across the continuum which encompass autocratic style, delegate authority style and even extends to other forms of styles. This is illustrated in Appendix 2. The continuum states that the position where there is full authority of the leaders and in certain situation there is freedom given to the employees to perform tasks. When the situation is worse than the leaders opt for authoritarian style by setting plans and giving directions, and when the leaders find it difficult to handle any situation then they encourage their team members to give their valuable opinions to resolve any such issue. On the contrary when the leaders are just profit oriented then the full control for performing tasks is given to the team members and no such relationship building exist between the management and the employees (Boxall and Purcell, 2003, pp. 151-152). The theory states that the leadership skills have a direct impact on the performance of the organization and even on the work environment. If the work culture is not that good then it would affect the team performance. As there would be lack of coordination amongst the employees and even the team members would be less motivated towards increasing the performance level. The managers at Nando’s should set up strategies in favour of the employees and even encouraging the team members to contribute their ideas on further improvement. The Fiedler’s contingency theory based on least preferred co-worker (LPC) states that different LPC factor denotes different leadership style. This is illustrated in Appendix 3.The low LPC factor indicates that the directive leadership style is best suited in this condition and the high LPC factor states that considerate style is more suitable. The group performance is affected by the LPC factor that the leader possesses and even on the kind of relationship that the leaders maintain with its employees (Kano, 2013, pp. 107-109). The leaders and the team members needs to develop a strong relationship as per the behavioural theory of leadership and team performance which states that the overall performance of the team can only be improved through a two way communication structure between the employees and management where different opinions are encouraged and even the employees are involved in the strategic decision making on various employment conditions. The theory even states that if the relationship between both the parties is strong then it ultimately helps in maintaining higher standards of work performance in the system. The shared leadership framework or horizontal leadership can be incorporated into the system of Nando’s so as to support the new growth strategy of the company through which the leaders and team members can lead each other (Bonnici, 2011, pp. 131-132). This form of leadership style can be implemented through shared purpose within the team where all the members of the organization are focused towards a common vision and has a specific path designed to achieve it. The company can even develop a healthy work environment through this approach where the team members provide each other psychological and emotional support. The team members can even be given the liberty to rise up voice against the measures adopted so as to reach the desired goal (Kerr & Tindale, 2004, pp. 623-625). Nando’s have the family work culture which can be maintained through continuous motivational approaches such as leaves, appreciation, incentives, rewards and awards. Conclusion/Recommendations The team performance and family culture of Nando’s can be maintained even in the situation of rapid growth by adopting leadership models such as supportive leadership and shared leadership styles. These would enable the managers to work in coordination with each other. The area managers and the managers of the Nando’s outlets needs to encompass the benefits of the employees in all of the decisions made by them so that the employees feel that they are given importance by the management. The company even needs to conduct training and development sessions so as to make sure that the leaders possess multi functional skills and even it would help to grade the employees on a performance scale on basis of their commitment towards work and the degree of performance level. The company is even recommended to recruit the members from within the organization for the managerial skills or by recruiting those individuals who possess the required skills and knowledge which can be enhanced by the company’s various training programs so as to convert them into future leaders. References Bonnici, C. A. 2011. Creating a Successful Leadership Style. United Kingdom: R&L Education. Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. 2003. Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke: Plagrave. Bryman, A. 2013. Leadership and organizations. New York: Routledge. Gottlieb, M.R. 2003. Managing Group Process. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Iqbal, T. 2011. The Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Effectiveness. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Kano, E. 2013. Leadership Styles. UK: GRIN Verlag. Kerr, N. L. & Tindale, R. S. 2004. Group Performance and Decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 55, pp. 623-25. Lussier, R. 2012. Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. USA: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R., and Achua, C. 2009. Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. USA: Cengage Learning. Mehrotra, A. 2005. Leadership Styles of Principals. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. Muna, D. F. 2011. Developing Multicultural leaders. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. Northouse, P.G. 2012. Leadership: Theory and Practice. USA: SAGE Publications. Appendix Appendix 1: Appendix 2: Appendix 3: Read More